Before I start on Zurich, I have a rant.
What's with the Milan train station and its horrible signs on where the washrooms are?! I literally ran around for 20 minutes (NOT exaggerating) trying to find the washroom. Finally when I found it, of course, I didn't have my wallet with me so I couldn't go in! Why do we have to pay for public washrooms?!?! I understand it does keep the homeless out, but seriously?! UGH!!!!
Anyway.
We arrived in Zurich late at night. Without hesitation, we took a cab to our hotel. This by far is the nicest place we have stayed at so far on this crazy trip! We were able to get a room at the new Renaissance Hotel in Zurich for $110 CAD/night! The king sized bed, the pillows! AHHH.. the big HD TV... I honestly want to take this hotel room to every city for the next four months!
Our first night was spent unpacking, and yes, having a meal that cost us $100 CAD because who knew that Zurich was THIS expensive!! A regular Fish & Chips was 25 Swiss Francs. With the exchange rate at $1 = 1.14 Swiss Franc, you work it out! This was not just because it was at the hotel, we soon find out over the course of the next three days, it was the regular price for a plate of food that did not come with a toy and a golden arch box!
After three weeks of travelling, we have sort of gotten into a grove.
Our first day at each city usually involved a lot of walking around, seeing the sights and just exploring what the city has to offer.
Zurich is beautiful. It feels like a small town with its charm and quietness, but has all the amenities of a big city!
We walked around Old Town Zurich, which had a few nice sights. They really love their clock towers here! Everywhere you turn, there's a clock. The Swiss and their time!
The city sits on the north end of Lake Zurich, with a couple of rivers that run north to south, emptying its fresh water into the busy lake. The old buildings sitting along the banks of the streams were beautiful. The swans floating around just makes it that much more serene.
Now I have never been to a city like Zurich where are able to sit by a stream in the heart of the financial district to soak your feet and take a break from the hot summer sun! This is exactly what we did. We were just exploring the city, and saw a bunch of locals sitting on a board walk along the stream soaking their feet, so we joined in. It was amazing! Fish, not small, at least a foot long, swam by my ankles as the cold water cools my over heating body.
The second night ended with us watching the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in the hotel. The ceremony itself was, I thought, well done. However, I am still biased towards the Vancouver ceremony. This seemed too busy! Also, just felt like it was a bunch of random things thrown together. Matt was right. The ceremony made the 2012 Games seem like it was the best thing that has ever happened to London and to the UK when in fact, it actually is not all that significant when compared to its rich and influential history.
Our second day, we decided to take it easy. So, we went and played tennis. Now this usually is quite normal at home, but this time, we played on RED CLAY! That's right, I have officially played on the European Red Clay. It was everything I thought it would be. I loved the sliding, the high kicks. The slowness of the court, and of course, the sliding! The court cost 20 Francs per hour, but well worth it. After each play session, one must clean up the court to swipe away all the foot and ball prints. Truly amazing. This will definitely be one of my top highlights of the trip!
At night, we met up with my high school friend Regina who is working in Wintour, 20 minutes outside of Zurich as a radiologist for the last year. She leaves for home mid August.
I was glad we met up. We went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant which has by far the best and most authentic tasting Chinese food so far in Europe. The name was, I think, Shui Long? Sounds about right.
After that, we went to have some dessert and this is when we went a bit crazy. Nine pieces of cake, all of different ingredients, and with a few different syrup, cream and jelly to add to them! For the three of us, it really did us in! After dessert, we met up with two of her friends and went to a Garden Bar. THis bar was in the middle of an industrial park, with tents, lighting, and a lot of people! The atmosphere was amazing.
It was definitely nice to chat with her. We laughed about all the good old times back in high school, caught up on some new gossip, as well, chatted about what her plans were when going back home after a year.
We ended the night on a full stomach after a full day!
Our next day took us to the Zurich Zoo. It was like your typical zoo, but we found it much more intimate. The layout of the place was great. Highlights were definitely the rhinos, tiger, wolves, and some animals that I have never seen before, but they were cute!
Now of course, there was drama on our way to the zoo. Matt had left our joint VISA at the restaurant we had lunch at back in Old Town. We only realize this when we got to the zoo and could not pay for our tickets. Well, it was another 20 minute tram ride down to the city, and back up again. We were committed to see the animals.
Our night took us back into town and met up with Regina for a traditional Swiss fondue and wurst! It was delicious!
Regina had been a great host, and Zurich was definitely a nice get away from the big cities!
Now, bring on the Belgium Waffles!!
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